A Tough Situation
by Goodreader22
Summary: Practice scene #2; a little bit more of everything compared to practice scene #1 (action, tension, suspense, etc.). This is what happens when you get too involved with the government. For reference, the characters are the same age as practice scene #1. (Action genre)


November 5, 2009:

As I was reading the daily newspaper (you'll understand when you get older) and enjoying my morning coffee, Tails rushes in our apartment, kind of out of breath. "What happened buddy?", I asked. "Umm... I... I kind of killed someone... someone powerful...", he said with a nervous look on his face. "What?! Who?! Tell me what happened!", I said.

He says he called a friend named Julia and noticed she wasn't answering her phone, so he went over to her house to check on her. That's when he heard a scream coming from the inside. Apparently, she was being raped and held at gunpoint by none other than the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Steven Ross. He approached them and drew his .45 handgun at him. That's when Ross pulled out his gun and aimed it at Julia. Tails successfully took the shot and saved her. But now he's afraid of what will happen. Ross had a lot of influence; people who looked after him, and he had friends in high places. I told him, "We need to complete the mission. We didn't spend a year over here gathering intel for nothing. If we do, they'll cover for you." "You think so?", he asked. "I'm sure they will. It's in their best interest to", I said. It doesn't really look too good. No evidence to prove any of this, just witness testimony. Police were called by a neighbor and he inmediately fled the scene with Julia. But it's not a matter of "will he win in court?", it's a matter of "would he even make it to court?".

Mr. Hotshot 25 year old screwed up again (not that I blame him). He looks up to me as a brother, and as his older brother (29 year old), I have to watch out for him. I know it wasn't his fault, but he needs to be more careful. Doing the right thing often gets you into trouble. In order to get out of this situation, we need some leverage. Our mission, what they want us to do, is to infiltrate a secret illegal lab to steal a bioterrorist agent. Hopefully then the government will listen to us, because I know they'll just throw us under the bus if we go to them now. It's the way this job works. They won't cover for us if we fail.

"Get your stuff and gear up, it's time. Let's get to the lab", I said. "Okay, want to review the plan?", he said. "We'll do that when we get there", I said.

Later that night...

"Alright so we're here by the abandoned houses in Chicago. They have a tunnel inside the house that leads to the underground lab and also through the sewers. It was in the basement, through a hole behind the old painting on the wall. The plan is simple: cut the lights, use the night vision goggles to sweep them out, and...", he says and starts searching through the bag he brought. "...umm , use these gas masks, tear gas, and these suppressed AR-15s to clear the building. And... flashbangs?", he says. "Hey, let me see that note", I said looking at the paper in the bag. The note reads:

Sup faggots. Here's the shit you need to complete the mission. Don't ask me what to do; figure it out yourselves, dumbasses. Come back when you find what you're looking for. See you in three years.

-Go fuck yourselvesLove, J.

"Three years, what a jackass. Did they send us out here expecting us to find nothing? Well, we'll find it in one year. No way we can't do this in one year, not with a genius by my side", I said while looking at Tails. He smiled. "So I guess we just go in and out. The thing is supposed to be in a locked room. According to our informant, the lock code is 578677928. Shouldn't be too hard once we get past the guys with the AK-47s. These ballistic vests we're wearing don't really protect us past one bullet, so try to be careful, he said. "Roger", I said.

Among the people we found in the lab were terrorists (possibly ISIS), and some crazy scientists. It was horrible; you could see the human test subjects in capsules and what the agent does to them. They experimented with humans; innocent men and women. Everything went down as planned. The tear gas and night goggles were enough, the flashbangs were just a precaution in case we weren't able to cut the lights. The tear gas helps minimize civilian casualties and makes our jobs easier, well at least it helped us deal with the armed guards a lot easier. Some scientists had hazmat suits and we had to knock them out the old fashioned way. After we get the "thing", we get away from the lab and back to our car. We change clothes and head to a motel. There we come up with a plan.

"Ok, so I think the best option is for me to take a picture of the Bacillus anthracis, walk up to whatever meeting spot they assign to me, and you stay behind with the actual thing while I negotiate", said Tails. "And then what?", I asked. "We'll see how things go", he said. "Doesn't that all sound a bit too risky?", I said. "Nah, I've got this", he said confidently.

About three hours later after he left, I get a phone call from him. "So how'd it go?", I asked. "It went fine. We need you to bring the thing down to an empty lot at 3 AM. I'll send you the coordinates. You give them "that", and we're good to go", he said. "So we just walk away clean like that?", I asked. "Yeah, pretty much. Julia would be under witness protection and the whole "murder" case would be closed, unofficially that is", he said.

Before I went over there, I reviewed everything that had happened until now, including what is Anthrax. I'll read the note Tails left for me: Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. Although it is rare, people can get sick with anthrax if they come in contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products. If the spores from this bacteria are inhaled, they can kill in a matter of 2 or 3 days, doing its worst damage with symptoms that seem no worse than a cold. The military considers anthrax to be the most serious of all biological threats. Pretty serious stuff. And they were finding a way in the lab to enhance it and mass produce it using the sample we collected.

I went over to the empty lot, handed over the Anthrax (or whatever Tails called it), and we all left. It just seemed too easy. Nobody was following us on the way home. What did Tails do or say during the negotiation that convinced them? Did we just get away with it?


End file.
